We’re building a brand-new studio to bring you bold ground reports, sharp interviews, hard-hitting podcasts, explainers and more. Support Scroll’s studio fund today.

The Bharatiya Janata Party office in Leh was set on fire by protesters demanding that Ladakh be granted statehood and be included in the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. This section guarantees protections for land and a nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal-dominated areas.

The demonstrators clashed with and threw stones at the police, and set fire to a police vehicle. Some protesters had been on a hunger strike since September 10 and had called for a complete shutdown to demand statehood.

Following the violence, climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, who has been leading the protests, called off his hunger strike. Read more.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned the timing of a new “e-sign” feature rolled out by the Election Commission for voter addition and deletions. He said that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar introduced the measure after the “vote theft” in Karnataka’s Aland Assembly seat.

The Indian Express reported that the new feature on the ECINET portal and mobile application required those seeking to register as voters, or applying for deletion and corrections, to verify their identity using their Aadhaar-linked phone numbers.

The e-sign feature was not present till Monday but could be seen on the ECINET portal on Tuesday.

The new feature comes days after Gandhi on September 18 claimed that the Congress’ analysis of the Aland Assembly constituency showed that an unknown entity had used software to delete voters in a centralised manner. Read more.

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a petition by social media platform X against Sahyog, a portal set up by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to “streamline” orders to take down content. The court said that the portal, far from being anathema to the Constitution, was in fact an “instrument of public good”.

In its petition, X had described Sahyog as a “censorship portal” claimed that the Information Technology Act does not contain any provision to create such a platform, or to require social platforms to appoint a nodal officer for it.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, however, upheld the portal’s validity and stressed the need for regulatory oversight of social media platforms operating in India. He said that “social media as a modern amphitheatre of ideas cannot be left in a state of anarchic freedom”. Read more.

The Manipur Police has arrested the prime suspect in the ambush that killed two Assam Rifles personnel on September 19. The suspect, identified as 47-year-old Khomdram Ojit Singh alias Keilal, is a resident of Awang Leikinthabi Awang Leikai in Imphal West, the police said.

Singh was arrested at about 1 am in a joint operation conducted by the Imphal West and Bishnupur district police, along with the 33 Assam Rifles unit. The suspect is allegedly a bailed-out member of the Manipur-based banned People’s Liberation Army and had previously been arrested in April 2007.

On September 19, a vehicle carrying personnel of the 33 Assam Rifles came under heavy fire from armed militants as the convoy passed through the Nambol Sabal Leikai village in Bishnupur district, killing the two personnel. Read more.

If you haven’t already, sign up for our Daily Brief newsletter.

📰 Crime Today News is proudly sponsored by DRYFRUIT & CO – A Brand by eFabby Global LLC

Design & Developed by Yes Mom Hosting